


Detention

by koganeisms (reiirae)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Japanese Shiro, Loneliness, but it’s not the garrison, school au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-25 07:43:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13829616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reiirae/pseuds/koganeisms





	Detention

The whole situation was stupid, Shiro convinced himself. He wasn’t supposed to be here - he didn’t do anything wrong, dammit - and yet here he was, surrounded by his constantly misbehaving classmates. There were a few surprising faces, he noted, but he didn’t think about that for too long. If he just did his work, time would fly by, and he could go home. How bad could it be, really?

“Shiro?” a loud voice chirped, causing Shiro to groan before following the sound of the voice. 

“Yes, Lance?” he asked tiredly, leaning back in his seat.

“Wow. Never thought I’d see you in detention,” Lance replied, raising an eyebrow questioningly. “What happened?”

He couldn’t help but roll his eyes, shaking his head. “I didn’t bring homework a couple times. It’s not like I’m here for anything major.” he muttered, turning back to face the front.

“Hardman,” Lance snorted, kicking at the chair legs of the boy sat in front of him. Shiro recognised him to be Keith, the argumentative boy from his politics class. Keith had an opinion on everything and everyone, so it seemed, and had no trouble expressing those opinions.

“Fuck off.” he ground out, whipping around to glare at Lance. 

“Easy, tiger,” Lance laughed, hands held up in a mock surrender. “No need to get too angry.”

Keith simply huffed out an infuriated breath before returning to his previous position, hunched over his book. Shiro almost felt sorry for him - Lance did seem to try everything in his power to anger his classmates, after all - but his annoyance at being forced into this detention in the first place diminished any other train of thought. 

“Don’t look so angry, Shiro,” a female voice spoke up, one belonging to a familiar classmate. He looked around to meet Allura’s eyes; the smart girl from his ethics class who always had spare pens. He managed to crack a slight smile, nodding slightly. “I got sent here for missed homework, too. I completely forgot I even had it.” she added, a sheepish smile creeping across her features.

“It’s easily done.” Shiro replied simply, playing with the corner of his paper. “I don’t really think they need to put us in detention for it.”

Allura shrugged, tapping the end of her pencil against the worn wood of the desk. “Some teachers don’t seem to understand accidents.” she mused, shaking her head dismissively. “It’s not like we’ll end up here again, Shiro. We’ll just have to grit our teeth and bear it.” 

Another five minutes elapsed before their teacher arrived, writing out a long sentence on the whiteboard at the front of the small classroom and instructing them to write it out one hundred times. Not a particularly difficult task, Shiro considered, setting to work quickly. The faster he got it done, the better. 

The room fell into a hushed silence, with only the sounds of pens scratching on paper and soft breathing audible. It was nice, in a strange way - Shiro felt like he was just sitting through an extra lesson, nothing like as bad as he’d expected - until the teacher got up and left the room to go copy something.

The second she was safely out of earshot, the classroom exploding into a cacophony of noise. Keith had Lance by the throat, screaming something about not messing with his chair; Pidge was in a heated argument with her brother over some trivial matter; Hunk was desperately trying to diffuse the situation between Keith and Lance; and Allura had turned her attention to the almost-fight happening in the centre of the room.

“Guys, please, not here…” Hunk begged, glancing anxiously at the door every so often. 

“If Lance doesn’t stop fucking with me he’s not gonna make it out of here alive.” Keith growled, pressing his forehead against Lance’s and scowling. Lance returned his scowl, pushing back. 

“Just make out already!” Matt yelled, laughing at the protesting cries from both boys. 

Pidge rolled her eyes dramatically at the pair, shaking her head disdainfully. “You act like children.” she called out, earning a disgruntled yelp from Lance. “Don’t even deny in, Lance. You’re the most childish person I know.” she called over her shoulder, though Shiro could see the smirk she wore from his seat. 

Lance broke away from Keith to demand answers, and Hunk seemed thankful for the distraction. “Are they always this bad?” Shiro murmured, raising an eyebrow at the Samoan.

“They’re...yeah, they’re always bad. Lance just likes to irritate Keith, and he always gets argumentative. They really don’t mix,” Hunk sighed, resting his head on his palms. “I always get caught up in the middle, because Lance is my best friend, but Keith is a nice guy when he’s not angry.”

Shiro nodded understandingly, glancing at Pidge and Lance briefly before turning his attention back to Hunk. “How did you end up here? You don’t really seem like a troublemaker, Hunk.” 

Hunk laughed anxiously, shaking his head. “I’m not. I’m just late a lot, so I get detentions for that. Lance is always here, though, so I guess it’s not too bad.” 

“Yeah, I suppose not,” Shiro mused, leaning back in his seat once again. “I’m not surprised to hear Lance is always here, though. I don’t even know how you two ended up so close - you’re both so different.”

“You know what they say, opposites attract!” Lance chimed in, perching on the corner of Hunk’s desk. “That why Hunk and I are besties.” 

Hunk nodded enthusiastically, smiling brightly at his friend before turning back to look at Shiro. “You know, Shiro, you don’t really talk to anyone. I never see you around.” 

“I...I suppose I don’t really spend much time with anyone. When I came here, everybody already had friends, so it made no sense to attempt to force my way into a friendship group that didn’t want me.” Shiro explained, shaking his head.

He hadn’t wanted to move schools - it was anything but ideal, really. Shiro had always been happy at school, sticking with the same group of friends since their first few years in the same class, so upon hearing his parents’ decision to move out of Japan, he was devastated. A foreign country, with a language he still struggled with and hundreds of new people all at once - it was his worst nightmare come true.

It wasn’t too bad once he got there, though. Shiro had always kept himself to himself when around unfamiliar people, and so he resorted to only vaguely knowing his classmates. Sure, he talked to people, but never outside of class. He didn’t go out at the weekends like most of his year group; he didn’t attend house parties; he spent most of his time working, training and studying. High school was just a passage to the next part of his life, he told himself. 

“Man, that’s rough.” Lance’s words brought Shiro back to reality, and he nodded slowly. 

“It’s not that bad. I have people I talk to in my classes, just not outside of them.” Shiro reasoned. 

Lance’s normally sunny expression was marred with a frown now, as he looked down at Shiro sympathetically. “Man, you could’ve always hung out with Hunk and I. We’ve always thought you’re pretty cool.” 

Shiro smiled softly, bowing his head quickly in appreciation. “Thank you. But I would hate to intrude on your friendship.” 

“That’s not how it is, dude,” Hunk chimed in, offering a small smile. “I’ve known Lance since I was tiny. Having another friend around isn’t gonna change the bond we have.” 

“Of course not! Hunk and I talk to loads of different people, even if the other doesn’t, and we’re still best friends.” Lance added, smiling brightly. “Besides, you need to get out more. You probably don’t go out much right now, do you?”

“I-I suppose not…” Shiro admitted sheepishly, feeling his face burning red. The room had dropped silent now, and he could feel six pairs of eyes all trained intently on him. 

“You should’ve told us! We would totally have invited you out,” Matt cried, moving over to clap a hand on Shiro’s shoulder. “In fact, I say we all go out this Wednesday. We have the day off, so…”

“That’s my birthday.” Shiro murmured quietly, a slight smile twisting the corners of his mouth upwards.”

“Wait, seriously?” Lance’s eyes widened as he jumped to his feet excitedly. “That settles it. We gotta do something special for your birthday!”

“I have something in mind, but we gotta keep it secret.” Keith spoke up, tilting his head to one side. “You’ll find out what it is on the day.” 

Shiro simply nodded, taken aback by the sudden kindness of his classmates. Though he would never admit it, he had always been lonely since the move, after struggling to make friends and eventually giving up. His family were good to him, but they couldn’t recreate the special bond he once had between himself and his friends back in Japan. For once, somebody was paying attention to him properly, making plans, caring about personal life events - the sudden happiness that bubbled up within him was overwhelming. 

“T-Thank you.” he murmured softly, biting his bottom lip. “You don’t have to do this, though.”

Lance shook his head firmly, smiling brightly once again. “Nope. You’re one of us now, and we don’t just miss birthdays like that. Any excuse for a party, am I right?” he joked, before resuming a more serious tone. “I’m serious, though. Hang out with us. You shouldn’t have to be all alone just cause you joined late.”

Shiro simply nodded, unable to form the words he wanted. For once in so long, he felt wanted, needed, _loved_ \- and there was nothing in the world that could replicate that feeling.


End file.
